The city may be among the largest with high homeownership rates, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a significant fall. In a Pew report released this past Wednesday, Philadelphia was found to have a 7.1 percentage-point decline– the second-highest drop in homeownership in comparison to other major cities.

According to the Inquirer’s Alan J. Heavens, the study reports the plunge took place between 2000 and 2012, and that its main catalyst was the infamous “real estate downturn that followed the bursting of the housing bubble in 2006-07,” as well as other general recession fruits (“stagnant incomes,” “rising home prices,” and “tight credit”).

Concrete reasons for the homeownership downturn, however, are harder to come by. Pew study director Larry Eichel believes Philly had a “higher starting point in terms of homeownership, so it had further to drop,” but that there’s “no hard data on which to base a firm conclusion.”

Plus, there is that thing about student-loan debt. As Heavens puts it, “young professionals who once were the chief source of first-time buyers are either wary of homeownership or burdened by student-loan debt.” And yet, there is one section of the city that has had its homeownership go up (granted, just by 1%): Read more »